England had the World Cup final ticket in the palm of their hands — then Thomas Tuchel let it slip away

It was euphoric. It was majestic. It was everything the England fans had envisioned, unfurling right in front of their eyes.

When Anthony Gordon stole ahead and poked the ball home from close range to give England a priceless 1–0 lead in the 55th minute, it finally felt like the Three Lions were building up exactly the way that their head coach Thomas Tuchel had said. The move was quick, precise, and incisive, exactly how Tuchel wanted it to be. And when that goal was followed by a crunching but brilliant goal-saving tackle by Djed Spence, the fans could reach out and touch the door to the promised land.

A first World Cup final in 60 years awaited the team. A breaking of the semi-final hoodoo. England had it in the palms of their hands.

And then, Tuchel did the unthinkable and the unforgivable.

For the best part of 60 minutes, England showcased their technical superiority in midfield, with Declan Rice and Elliott Anderson doing an exceedingly good job of marshalling Lionel Messi, limiting him to a bystander for much of that phase. In fact, so brilliantly was the job done despite its magnitude that the Argentine talisman gave away the ball 15 times in a first half that was full of attrition, the most he has given away possession in the last two World Cups as well as the Copas América. With Anderson remaining touch-tight to Messi, England’s man-marking approach was evidently working.

However, all that changed after England took the lead and Tuchel decided to shut shop and go fully defensive from minute 60 onwards instead of attacking and pushing Argentina further into their own half, limiting their ability to mount a comeback both physically and psychologically. Perhaps the successful resistance his side put up against Mexico and Norway in successive matches had a big part to play, but Argentina are not Mexico or Norway, nor did either of those teams have a certain Lionel Messi to run point.

Going defensive to see out a game is fine from a reactive point of view, but doing so proactively, and especially at the cost of willing runners who can take the sting out of the game when needed, is the equivalent of signing your own death warrant.

From that point on until the end of the game, England managed to have just 12% of the ball, letting Argentina dictate terms and attack at will. There is only so much defending that can be done against an attack of this intensity, and that was inevitably broken by an Enzo Fernández piledriver.

From then on, there was just one winner, and it was the defending champions, as Messi once again carried the team on his back. England paid the price for being — for the lack of a better expression — too English at the worst possible time, and instead of a spot in the final against Spain, they will now be playing against France in a game no one really wants to play.

England had it all. And Thomas Tuchel let it slip away. This will be spoken about for a very long time.